Hold me, I'm drowning
by Elactrodite
Summary: Sakura dies at the very end of the war, and finds herself being transported back into yet ANOTHER war. With the man she loved, pretty much dead at this point, and every precious person she ever had along with him, how will she cope with the fact the Konoha hasn't even been built yet? Better yet, how about the shinigami's new present on her back?
1. I'll love you forever

_**HEY GUYS!: This is going to (hopefully) be a long story, the main pairing isn't decided yet, so comment and review for your choice. This story is time travel in the next chapter coming up, so hopefully it'll get interesting! sorry if the first chapter is kinda badly written, don't worry though! it will get better!**_

 ** _Any-who_** _ **, enjoy!**_

Saying Goodbye

 **CHAPTER ONE**

I'll miss you forever and ever.

When you think about how you're going to die, you think about all that is left behind after your departure.

When you leave, who will look after your plants? Who will clean the house? Who will pay the bills? Who will look after all the loved ones and the precious people that you can't take with you?

And you think, ' _Who will take my place, when I leave?'_

But you can never know.

It's the same for everyone. And even as she lay upon soiled dirt, red with her own blood, she found her memories and life, flickering past her clouded eyes. She saw her worries, her personal issues, and even her family and friends whom she adored, the good and the bad.

They who looked after her in the bad times and the ugly, who stood up for her and cherished her. It was their faces who were in the forefront of her mind while her entrails were strewn underneath her. Smiling.

Laughing.

Coughing, she twitched, her back pained as it spasmed on the ground, her chest convulsing and rising irregularly as a steady stream of crimson gurgled from her mouth. She had long ago stopped applying pressure and trying to close the gaping wound in her stomach, which had swollen and spilled out the precious organs inside of the skin. She was not a pretty sight.

Haruno Sakura, aged 21, born to Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno, was dying.

She was dying and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

The Fourth Shinobi War had raged on for 6 years. There was never a time to rest, and for Sakura, the injured only came and came, from a slow trickle in the first year, and steadily growing until it was more of a never ending flash flood, drowning the medics who had managed to survive along with her under the heavy weight of their lives.

The prospect of death loomed over them frequently, because they never were able to save everyone who came to their aid, and every day, just as many died of their wounds as the amount of people who came in. This was mainly because sometimes, or a lot of the time, Chakra just couldn't fix everything even if the normal medical supplies were helpful. It couldn't reconstruct a limb and it couldn't fix a broken spine.

It couldn't fix half of a torso and it couldn't give you back the eyes you'd lost. You'd be left as useless as a fly with no wings.

And so, seppuku became a frequent hazard in the small medic area that the united forces had.

Her small force of trainees had been trying to get to the sector in what _was_ Iwagakure, but was now just a pile of rubble. There was another First-Aid camp there, and only three days prior had a messenger bird flown to their sector, asking for immediate assistance. It was only natural to come with them.

So, for the first two days of their journey, everything was slightly normal. Quiet.

The juubi was last seen in the southern side of fire country, battling it out against Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi, who were the heads of the first division. From the rumours passed down from Shinobi who had been rescued from the battlefield, the war was coming to its end, Madara had been killed in battle, and Obito had been fatally wounded. The great Beast itself had become as powerful as the ones who had been controlling it, diminishing.

Falling.

They were winning, and everyone was elated. Joyous and in celebration, bottles of reserved sake had been brought out in the infirmary, despite the state of their bodies, and a type of indoor festival had occurred. And it was in these few moments, Sakura had last allowed herself to smile.

It was more of a pained grimace, one of relief and happiness, because it had been a very long time since she had used those particular facial muscles.

Finally, it got to the third day.

They were almost there, only five hours away from the camp, when tragedy struck.

The beast no one expected to encounter, had thrown a last ditch-attempt bijuu bomb in their direction, aiming for their supplies and armies, it had misjudged the trajectory by exactly 2 miles.

2 Miles that could've been anyone else's problem.

2 miles that could've instead hit empty space had it gone the other way.

But it had come for them.

Her entire platoon was swiftly wiped out in the blink of an eye before her, their blood splattering her face and neck as the explosion tore them from the place of the living. There were no screams. There was no sound of crying or the deafening roar of the ethereal use of chakra.

Just an eerie silence as she watched the people whom she had trained with and survived with in sweat and tears and blood became but smears of red in the dirt.

She was blasted away from them, being just out of range of the attacks centre, burned and viciously torn through an earth spike protruding from the ground, most likely from an earlier confrontation. The spike had gone through her back and out through her stomach, but being who she was, she immediately punched her way off the spike, having enough energy and chakra to completely obliterate the intruding object from her body accidentally.

It was a stupid, stupid idea, and she regretted it now more than ever, as chakra exhaustion hit and she couldn't even heal herself or close the wound.

So she lay on her deathbed of dirt.

And sobbed to herself, trying desperately not to close her eyes for fear that she would leave without saying goodbye. Without thanking them.

Without loving them as she wished she did.

There were so, so many regrets in her life. From letting Sasuke leave the village, never being strong enough, always being the weak link in their team, to not being there for Naruto when she should've, when he always cared, to never telling Kakashi…

To never telling him...That she loved him.

Never getting to hold him, never having enough courage to get up off her ass and _doing_ something about the feelings she harboured for more than seven years. Seven years she had loved the man who she knew couldn't love her back, for she was only a student to him, and he was her sensei. Seven _whole years_ , her love for him was unrequited and one-sided, always from afar she had to admire him and care for him, watching as he risked himself daily, while her heart ripped itself anew again and again.

She didn't know what she'd have done if she realised it was going to end like this.

If she knew that she wasn't….going to see him ever again.

It hurt. It burned. It flushed through her veins like a slow, viscous lava, pouring and melting every inch of her broken self and soul until she had no chance against it.

Frustration. Anger.

Why?

Why her? Why only her little force of medics? Why couldn't it have been _anyone else_?

Why, when they were so _close_ to seeing the end of the war? Why when she was so close to finally getting her dream of a family, of Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage? Why couldn't she just _live_ for a few more days, a few more months.

A few more years.

Just to finally see the end.

Blinking away the river of tears dripping uselessly from her green eyes, she ground her teeth, staring up at the sky as the pain began to give way to numbness, black spots gathering in the corners of her vision.

White noise and ringing was all she could hear, but the small prick of voices could be heard getting closer and closer. It didn't matter.

Her skills told her she _definitely_ wasn't going to survive this. She wasn't entirely sure of how long she had been out here, bleeding, but with a huge hole through one's stomach, it honestly shouldn't have taken more than five minutes for her to fall victim to the injury.

She was only still here out of stubbornness.

She gave a humorless, rattling chuckle, only spitting out more red.

Fierce to the end, and fighting until she died trying.

What a good way to go.

Time was something none of them had, and it was normal for Shinobi and Kunoichi to die at a young age, and in war, it wasn't uncommon for kids to die at the young age of ten, even. When you got into a profession such as this one, death should be at the forefront of your mind every mission. Sakura knew this as a loyal Kunoichi of Konoha. Of the united shinobi forces.

But it doesn't mean she had to like it.

Turning her head to the side, a broken sob escaped her as the three blurred figures of her boys ran to her, an odd buzzing reaching her muddled mind as Naruto was the first to fall at her side. Sasuke and Kakashi followed close behind, one with almost surprised denial on his features, and the other with unhidden tears and a clear frantic concern fluttering around him.

A spark of happiness sharpened her senses, and a soft prodding of hope, that was squashed under an iron boot at the thought of living, because she knew that even Tsunade wouldn't be able to save her.

But at least, she had this.

Suddenly, she could hear and see, the looks of horror on each of their faces as they gazed upon her form, Naruto, bringing her head up to rest on his lap after collapsing at her side. He frantically tried to hold his hands over the massive wound, screaming at her, telling her to just _not die,_ his big blue eyes overflowing. The war was finally _over._ She could come home with them, that she could come back and sit underneath the big oak tree in their training ground and read her medical books like she used to.

Sasuke only grit his teeth and got a wad of bandages out of his kunai pouch, hands shaking as, even though he knew it was useless, he wrapped them around every other wound, a lone tear dripping out from his left eye that was purple with the rinnegan. She grinned, shoving his bandages back at him.

He needed them more than she did.

The last of their small group, had fallen to his knees beside where her head rested on Naruto's lap, grey hair clumpy with blood, dirt and flesh, clothing torn, mask on the verge of falling off, both eyes showing, but Sakura still thought he looked beautiful in the ever burning sun he blocked.

And she had a thought.

As his tears made a clear trail down her dirty cheek, the cold look of detachment and despair in his eyes, in Sasuke's eyes, in Naruto's, she decided, if she was going to die here, might as well make the most of it while she faded away.

"N-Naruto, Sasuke, ...K-Kakashi…" She murmured, reaching out to wipe away the wetness on Kakashi's face. Immediately, they were silent, watching her solemnly. Suddenly, a wide smile spread on her cracked lips, the blood was pouring out of her like a faucet, and she knew her time was limited, but the joy in seeing them, in knowing that they had come back for her made it worthwhile.

Naruto, his hands now soaked in her blood, his voice husky from screaming out her name before, looked down at her with a painfully scared and desperate expression on his face.

"Sakura-chan, don't worry! We'll get you back to camp, and-and patch you up, and you'll be o-okay, ne? Right? W-we can get Tsunade-baachan t...to fix you and-"

"Naru-"

"And, y-you'll get through it, and we can all-all go out to i-ichiraku ramen-"

"Naruto st-"

"And a-after that, every d-day, we'll all t-train in f-field seven like always-"

"Naruto stop!" She growled, coughing at the extra effort.

Grievous sobs hiccuped from his throat as his attempts went to waste.

Grunting she rose one hand up and grabbed one of his hands that was still crushed against her stomach, or what was left of it.

Looking at him steadily from where she was, she gulped, because trying to talk through a glob of blood was harder than it looked.

"N-Naruto, I wish I..c-couldv'e seen you, wearing th-..the Hokage robes… B-but, i'm s-so...so _p-proud_ of you..I'm so glad I m-met you Naru...I-I lo..I love you, b-but we both _know_ I w...I wont s-survive…" Coughing and hacking, her chest and lungs sounded like she was drowning in them, but she pressed on, knowing that she wouldn't have another chance. Gipping harder, she continued, looking into the sad cerulean hues that had given her strength.

"I-I want...to t-thank you Naruto, F-for... _everything_ you've given m-me… Hinata-chan w-will make a..g-good wife…" She said, a bloody laugh shaking her shoulders as she looked over to Sasuke, the many things she forgot to say to him pulsing through her head the more she stared. All the regrets from earlier coming back as she watched him trembling in front of her, his hands in fists clutching at the taters and bandages he tried to wrap her in. He wouldn't look at her.

"S-Sasuke...I forgive y-you, yknow?" At this, his head snapped up, an angry and sad look on his face as he opened his mouth to say something, before he closed it. Realising that she was probably only going to live a few moments longer.

Giving him a melancholy smile, she carried on. "I f-forgive you...for a-all the things yo-you've done…. B-ut, p- _promise me_...yo-u'll c-come back to K-Konoha?" Blinking away the pink strands of hair as he bowed his head, she slowly took her time in looking back up to the man she had loved one-sidedly for almost half of her life.

She took him in for all that he was, admired him for his unwavering strength and reliability, even if his timing was anything but. She had loved him for all that he was, porn to gravity-defying hair, to his grief by the rock of memories, to his fee-ditching self. She had loved him, for who she knew him to be and for who he never showed. She had loved him knowing that he would never love her back.

But it was okay.

Because he was here.

"Kakashi...I n-never had a c-chance… If it we-were any other way, I-...I w-wish I could've told y-you, but I ne-...never had the c-courage. I... _I love you._ I-t's…. Its b-been seven y-years...but I wish I c-could have….I wish I ha-had more time …. I l-love you s-so much it w-was painful to..to wa-tch you lea-ve and f-fight..not knowing..not knowing i-if you'd come b-back…." Looking up at him, his tears were almost more overflowing than Naruto's, as she saw them widen and his jaw lock. Reaching up her other hand, crying along with him, she shakily stroked the tears away off his cheek, a softer smile for him spreading as pure joy at _finally_ telling him shot through her heart.

"I-I don't kn...know If you f-feel the s-same..the s-same way… But I just want you to-to ...to k-know t-that, I'll love you… I did… I loved y-you for then...for now… unt-until.. The day I die.. I'll l-love you, forever and always..Hatake Kakashi...Even if you d-don't feel the same…" Her tears dripped freely unto the dirt, as her shoulders shook and the black spots took over her vision. She could now die without regrets… Because it was finally out…

Memories of his happy face, or Naruto and Sasuke, memories of their team photo flashed through her mind as she gazed on their grieving forms knelt beside her. She could feel her heart begin to slow. She had to admit, it had been a good run while it lasted. Even if she didn't achieve her own dream, she was glad. She was so overfilled with pride and melancholy at that moment, it didn't even matter that she had no time left.

Her life was good.

But now, it was time to go.

She watched through blurred vision as Kakashi's eyes squeezed shut, a cracked, choked laugh dragging out from clenched teeth and a frowning mouth. She didn't like it one bit.

"Don't frown.." She whispered, "Smile for me, because I'll miss you. Forever and ever, to eternity and beyond…" And so he did.

He gave her the most blinding smile he could after tugging the remnants of his mask off his face. And he was absolutely perfect. She felt her heart swell with love once more.

Slowly, her eyes drifted shut, her smile still on her pale skin, hearing Naruto's voice call out to her, and feeling Kakashi softly bring his head to drop down onto her own, his hands on her cheek while Sasuke's quiet crying reached her ears.

One last time, the person she had loved for the longest time in her life, murmured to her sweetly, his smile still etched in her mind's eye.

At his words, her hand slipped from his face, flaring the very last bit of chakra she had left as a last act, curling it around his form.

Death was good to her.

And it was then, in the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Haruno Sakura,

Died.

" _Why didn't you say anything? I love you too.."_


	2. What is life?

_**HEY GUYSS!**_

 _ **So sorry it took this long to put up another chapter, I've been stressed lately, with exams and all, so I'm sorry if its a rushed job. But still, I'll try and update my story more frequently.**_

 _ **I saw the recent reviews too, and I decided to re-do the chapter, so I deleted my first attempt. Really sorry about that haha. But I made it better! So, uh yeah...**_

 _ **Cause I lurv you guys 3 ~**_

 _ **Anywho, enjoy chpter 2! Please leave a review, I really do like to know what people think.**_

 _ **Ta for now~**_

 _xxx_

Sakura was content.

The pains of the man she had loved were lingering though, grievious and longing for a life she could no longer have, a life with children and warmth. Her only true hatred at how things turned out was the love that Death had cheated her of.

But he had loved her back.

Her boys were finally safe. They could go on now, and live their dreams as she had hoped they would. Amused, she thought of Naruto and Sasuke fondly and each of them having kids of their own, panicking as they ran ropes around their legs.

Sakura was sure that after the war time, the countries would continue to be allies even in the face of the ever-changing future, something she was going to be forever proud to have been a part of.

She was at peace with the end of her life, with how everything turned out, in the end she had no lasting regrets.

It was final, and she was okay with that. She accepted death.

But, in the blankness of her inner mind, she realised a particularly vital piece of information.

She shouldn't be capable of even _being okay with that._

When someone died, there is supposed to just simply be a vacancy, because the brain stopped functioning along with the body. She was _dead._ But why then, if she was dead, could she still smell the scent of dirt?

Why could she still _feel?_

Still _think._

 _She was coherent._

She mused that maybe that wasn't unusual, maybe the afterlife was just like an after-image of sorts, a genjutsu that never ended and never stopped. But then again, that wouldn't really make too much sense because the brain's functionality would have come to a complete halt at the time of death and so therefore her previous assumption would have been moot.

What point would there be for a (now dead) being to continue to hallucinate?

Bitterly, her muddled mind fogged up the brilliant idea that maybe there were some sadistic higher beings up there, who couldn't hail down enough mercy to allow her soul to leave her body and instead decided that she was more useful left in the rotting corpse.

Because if mind transfer was a possibility, then who is to say that forcing the consciousness of another person to stay _in_ the mind wasn't.

She was already grieving over the loss of her make-shift family and lovelife. She didn't need such a drastic sarcastic and cruel remark on her deathbed.

Stiff, but still curious, she gave herself a mental scan of her internal body structure, the familiar feel of a steadily beating heart and the gentle _whoosh_ of oxygen fluxuating through her lungs, stunning and confusing her for a split instant, before she moved on to her chakra stores and winced.

' _I barely have 10% of my normal capacity. If I use anymore I'll end up dipping into my life stores.'_ She grumbled. ' _But firstly, if my organs are indeed functioning at a regulated rate, then how in the seven hells am I even still alive?'_

How was one person, one who had been blasted away and shoved through a wooden spike, with almost _half of her internal organs spilling out,_ able to survive when she was so very sure that she had even _heard_ her heart come to a complete stop on that field. It made her mind whirl, the struggle to completely comprehend the slight chance of someone saving her split seconds before her death, something that she was insistent that even _Tsunade,_ one of the three sannin and Hokage of Konohagakure couldn't do was mindblowing.

But, then again, lately, it really seemed like the impossible was becoming possible in the small span that was her life. She thought the Kyuubi was the strongest being to walk the earth after the Sage of Six Paths. Never once did she contemplate the chance of every one of the chakra beasts _forming together._

Despite her situation, Sakura let a silly giggle threaten to force itself past her chapped lips at the thought of the bijuu smooshing together in one big blob of rainbow puke.

' _Now is really not the ideal time to be thinking about that'_ she thought, amused.

Amusement quickly gave way to depression, though, as she came back to her predicament.

Unless someone had actually given her their own life force, there was no possible way for her to have been revived. She clearly remembered using the last of her own to curl around Kakashi in what she thought would be her last goodbye, and so if anyone did actually manage to give her life, they would have had to immediately replaced hers within the span of approximately fifty seconds, which, given those types of circumstances, she was pretty damn certain that it was incredibly unlikely that anyone but herself had learnt Chiyo-baa-san's original jutsu.

Feelings of frustration began to surface, as every theory she came up with didn't seem to fit in with what she was experiencing right at this moment, the sharp pang of a headache in the corner of her mind.

' _I don't know what is going on right at the moment, but I need to find my team and Kakashi if I really am still alive, but I would have thought that they'd have had my body sealed up. Weird.'_ She mused, feeling her features being to fall into a frown without her even noticing.

But, in order for her to find them, she needed to regenerate first.

If the massive hole in her stomach wasn't enough to steal the rest of her chakra away as well as kill her if she tried to heal it, then the dehydration and lack of food and resource would.

But surprisingly, when she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the startling shade of green.

At first, her vision was expectedly blurred, but as soon as she managed to focus, her eyes widened and she lay stock still.

The tree she was glaring at was one she was intimately familiar with before the war had seen its destruction. There would never be a time that she would forget the tree she would see the stupid blonde swinging from when they were younger, his depressed face flashing in her mind, remembering all those times she would leave with her parents from the academy, feeling the burn of his sad blue eyes piercing the back of her head.

She would recognise the weird knob of the trunk that always stuck out so awkwardly anywhere, because anytime she went looking for Naruto only to find him here, she constantly whacked her shins against it (which she was pretty damn sure left a dent on her person down to the bone. Thankfully it hadn't ruined her performance one bit. Not that she was particularly useful back then).

But that couldn't be right, because that would mean that the academy should be behind the bushes, but when she blearily moved her head, all she could see was _more._ More trees, more bird sounds echoing in her ears, but there was no indication of civilisation as far as she could see.

Which would have been understandable, since Konoha had been raised to the ground by the Juubi under Madara and Obito's influence, but from what she could see from the abundance of wildlife and the age of the trees growing here (That were so healthy and tall they could have possibly been seedlings far before her mother was a young child), this forestry was grown long ago, too long for it to have grown in the span of only a few years.

Her eyebrows came together in confusion, as a sense of dread filled her.

What if this was just another ploy by Madara? What if the whole ending of the war was just the start of the _Eye of the Moon_ plan?

It was a very low possibility of course; because her death at the hand of a bijuudama would make it indefinitely stupid to put a genjutsu on the dying. Or even, perhaps giving her death in the very start of the genjutsu.

It was a possibility, but a completely stupid one.

' _Just like an Uchiha to play shitty mind games'_ She thought spitefully a grimace marring her face.

If this really was a genjutsu, and not the _Eye of the Moon plan,_ then she should at least try and dispel it. It was very odd though, for a man who had founded Konohagakure, that he would forget details like this. But then again, she may or may not be mildly concussed, which may be affecting her ability to recognise landmarks.

There were plenty of trees, it's very likely that she could have simply mistaken one tree for another, but the thought of her forgetting a spot that was very important to her illegitimate little brother made her want to cringe.

Of course, she would have to wait a while for her chakra to regenerate, possibly a few days by the looks of it. Chakra exhaustion generally caused muscle fatigue and slower thought process. Severe chakra depletion could cause brain hemorrhage and break down of the inner and outer chakra shells in the physical stores. Luckily, what she was currently experiencing seemed to just be mild Chakra Exhaustion, but she desperately needed the aid of proper medicine to get back to health faster without the use of her chakra.

That being said, she gently shifted her head to look down at the gaping hole in her stomach that she expected to see, until she had to rub her eyes and take another look, by now sure that she was in a genjutsu.

Because the hole was gone.

There wasn't even any blood.

Shocked, she gaped, green eyes wide as she sat straight up, patting the spot frantically. Stunned she tried her senses; Smell, Taste and Feel. A genjutsu should not be able to completely cover _every single sense._ Of course, the most advanced genjutsu masters could cover about three to four of the major senses after complete study on the inner workings of those parts, but not be able to fool _every single one._

It was for this reason that they only really had a select few genjutsu masters in the village, as the dedication to the nin-type followed mostly along the lines of a medic in anatomy and physiology, which was where a lot of the shinobi that began in the force only really got the very basics of genjutsu. In order to fool the senses, one needed to understand how to manipulate certain areas of a sense in order to replicate how something would feel/taste/look/sound/act within an illusion.

Medics were taught genjutsu in order to stay alive if they were suddenly called in for field work on the slight possibility that there was no one on call, something that Sakura had learnt in her first years learning under Tsunade's tutelage.

But it seemed, that using those lessons in order to figure out whether or not this was an illusion was proving to be troubling, as nothing she was using to check on the sudden disappearance of the wound seemed to be working. There was nothing to even _indicate_ that there had indeed been a wound there, or the impression that there might have been.

There was no smell of old blood that she should have been able to get, but that was okay, because a lot of people were able to trick the nose. Obviously her eyesight was out for now until she got her chakra back, but the swell of inflammation and infection should have settled in enough by now to at least pain her or give some indication of pain. But it was well known that Uchiha Itachi's Tsukuyomi was able to imitate the pain through the nerve endings and pain receptors, so Madara's Genjutsu might be able to do the same thing, only reversed if his sheer ingenuity was not enough.

There was no scarring when she lifted up her shirt, not a puncture, and she checked her chakra once again to see if it was unstable, but it was strangely calm as it should be when she was awake. It would have been erratic if this really was an illusion.

' _Signaling a release in the middle of what could possibly be enemy territory could potentially do the same thing that a flare would, only for the wrong attention to be drawn, but this really doesn't seem to be an illusion from what things are telling me.'_ But, even if everything was telling her that this wasn't, in a world full of impossible things made possible, there is always a chance things can be different that what they are perceived to be.

Sakura quickly gained her bearings and scanned her surroundings, ready and on guard if anything was to happen.

It seemed like she was in a small clearing, but everywhere she rotated her eyes to look, she could see nothing but absolute green, the small rivets of sunlight poking through the treetops. Wild life constantly caught her eye; the shiny scales of lizards shimmying up tree trunks, the swift flash of a rabbit's pelt. She could even hear the far away stamper of deer's hooves on the ground, just like she would whenever she went over to see Shikamaru to play Go.

But there was nothing else she recognised other than that tree that she would always remember seeing the sad little blonde swinging constantly on, and she was sure, now that her vision had cleared more, that this was definitely the same tree, if a little younger than what she seemed to recall.

Everything about this was throwing her off more and more, the recent dread she felt at the possibility of there being an interference from Madara only growing stronger, which only made her want to find her village faster. In order to do that, she had to find a place that would give her even the slightest indication on where to go, because she didn't quite know where she was at this point.

For all she knew, she could quite possibly be in-between Cloud and Lightning right now. If she woke up underwater, she would have drowned herself because, she admitted sheepishly to herself, she probably wouldn't even know the difference between up and down.

Scrunching her face up at the whole wrongness of the situation, Sakura decided to take stock of what she had left. It wouldn't be good to not know what you had on your person, you might accidentally drink a poison vial instead of a medicine if you weren't careful.

Short pink locks waving in the wind and in front of her face, she moved to tuck it behind her ears, until she actually saw her hand and paused, squinting at it suspiciously.

It was at this point that her perception of self seemed to be off.

It was… strange. Everything seemed to be marginally bigger than what they previously were when she was last conscious.

When she looked at her dirt-clumped hands, they suddenly seemed so much smaller and more delicate than the hardened calluses and chewed-down nails that she remembered, retaining more of a pinky hue and soft to the touch.

Even when she felt her facial features, they seemed somewhat chubbier whereas her normal shinobi gear was hanging off her form just as rags would.

She was...tiny.

As in _really really tiny._ It reminded her of the time when...well

When she was..

"I'm ten?"


	3. Red Eyes and Small Thoughts

_**Hey!**_

 _ **Sorry for the short chapter this week, I'm just working on the next one right now, which'll be longer.**_ **DEFINITELY** ** _longer. So I'm really sorry that this is kind of a filler chapter, but it is going to show important development. And I'd just like to thank all of you for the kind reviews. Once again, if you have any recommendations or criticism, please leave a review! I appreciate anything!_**

 ** _Anyway, Enjoy~_**

After promptly passing out in the middle of the field again, only to wake up extremely aggravated and confused, Sakura quickly hustled to the cover of a small cave just as the sun began to dip below the Mountains in the south.

If she was going to accomplish anything, she desperately needed to find her team. But then again, that would be kind of awkward to just run through the window of the Hokage Office and just announce that she wasn't really dead, and that the wooden spike that had impaled her didn't really kill her, and that she was stuck in her weak, 10 year old body.

' _Yeah, because that would go over well.'_ She snarked.

In the twilight of the evening light, she looked like any other beggar on the street, dressed in oversized rags and properly pampered in grime. Even in her pink tresses, the grease and dirt made her hair colour actually appear as if it were a light shade of brown, although if one looked close enough they would be able to see the real shade in her roots.

Disgusted at her state of self, she backed her small form into the very back wall of the cave, as far away from the light as she could.

' _How does someone even get into this mess?'_

There were so many questions running through her mind, like what did this mean? Who did this to her? Where was she? Where was her team? Why wasn't she _dead yet?_ A better person might ask why she was a child again, but with the large reserves she had when she was in her older body.

Sighing, the cold chill from the outside danced around her, goosebumps erupting on her arms and legs as she brang her knees up to her chest. (Or lack thereof)

When she woke up a while ago, she was still dressed in the same, if a little battered, uniform as she usually was, only difference was the immense swap she was now in with her flak jacket and black pants hanging off her form. But how does that even happen anyway?

Why would someone just turn her into a little kid? Or, better yet, _how_ would someone turn her into a little kid?

' _Okay, well, first thing in the morning I have to find some better clothing, because if I even_ _ **attempt**_ _to run in these… well, wouldn't it be delightful for some unknown stranger to get a pantty view from a ten-year old.'_

Taking an experimental sniff, she instantly scrunched her nose up, smelling the copper of blood and the days old sweat deeply ingrained into the fabric.

' _Perhaps a bath would also be preferable if I can find a town or a stream nearby.'_

It was a pity that she couldn't waste a little bit of chakra to heat herself up, because by the looks of things, with the sky getting darker each minute and the temperature dropping lower with it, she would freeze if she didn't get warm soon.

But Tsunade had taught her many things, and kami damned if she wasn't resourceful.

The deer had to come past sometime, because she could hear the heavy thunder on the fields.

 _ **XXX**_

The crack of a small fire in the dull of the night spat small embers into the air, exploding as she threw more kindling onto it. Freshly caught deer, fully skinned and sliced into proper portions were put into rations for later while she had some cooked on a spit atop the flames.

It took a little time, but after catching the deer, she made the pelt into a resting mat, spreading it out on the rocky surface. Who said comfort was only for the wealthy?

' _Then again, deerskin isn't exactly as soft as wolf skin, but at least it stops the chill in my back.'_ Sleeping on a mass of rock was worse than sleeping on the much more prefered furs.

She had even found a hot spring in the very depths of the cave, in which she had spent at least a good couple of hours leisurely bathing herself. Unfortunately, she had to hop back into her old clothing, but she made it work with a couple of woven flax belts and vines that she had made and found in the outer lands near her little shelter.

Curling up on top of her make-shift bed, she snuggled her head into the crook of her arms, the burning warmth from the proximity of the fire from her face causing blood to rush, the need for a cover gone. Shadows danced, her eyes darkening to a pale grey, as she thought.

' _First things first, I need to figure out how to get back to my original age, and also how I got mixed into this mess. '_

She could easily use a henge to cover herself, but anyone above even high genin level would see through such an obvious illusion. It was taught in the academy after all.

Maybe if she covered herself with a multi-layered henge? She had the proper amount of control that was needed for it, but for a long period of time, especially the time it would take to get past the gate guards and to re-administer herself into the village without all her papers, it just wouldn't work. She had large reserves and control, but because it took so much mental focus to properly maintain a constantly moving illusion, especially with as much foliage as there was, she would probably only last through not even a full four hours.

Sighing, Sakura picked absently at the ground, raking her tiny nails across the hard surface of slate.

She wished she had asked Jiraiya about his camouflage jutsu, but every time she thought of doing so she was too busy pounding his face into the ground outside of the women's onsen. Sheepishly, she let the small thought trail past that maybe he didn't deserve to have his nose constantly broken.

Or his cheekbones constantly fractured.

Or to have a concussion every time she saw him.

Those thoughts were soon dismissed with haste in the eye of the fact that he was _spying on them for his own convenience._ Probably using some sort of picture-jutsu too while he was at it.

The Pervert.

The puffs of smoke wafting gently from the orange heat were curling up and exiting through the top of the cave, squeezing through a hole she couldn't see, but it was making her increasingly drowsy.

Sometimes, she mused, she just wanted someone to tell her what to do, to give her orders, to give her a path to follow. She wished there was someone with her, someone, anyone right now, because she really needed a hug and some advice.

Maybe when she got to the village, Naruto would let her through? Maybe he would just think that she was her own daughter, born in secrecy in a one night stand. But then again, she hadn't ever been forced to go on any seduction missions, and she didn't have anything on her record. There was also the blaring flash light of ' _ **Virgin'**_ hanging over her head in neon, obnoxious writing.

Sure, she'd had her flings with a few guys, but she was never brave enough to go _there._ Of course, things would lead in that direction, but she would always back off before anything was started.

Not that anyone else but those select few knew that.

But nearly everyone knew that she hadn't done the _stuff,_ because of that one time the rookie nine got drunk at one of Shika's extremely rare parties. Chuckling softly, she remembered only snippets, but she did know that she got completely wasted via Ino. And surprise, surprise, when she woke up in the morning smelling foul and passed out on the mat in the living room beside Kiba, she found out, (once again, via Ino) _exactly_ what she had verbally unloaded onto her friends.

But she didn't feel too embarrassed about it, knowing that Kiba had told everyone he tried to shove a soap bottle up his ass when he was a curious pre-teen.

Funnily enough, it was Neji who had told her was she had said in response to Kiba's drunken announcement- " _At least we all know that you take care of personal hygiene in_ _ **all**_ _areas. I'm sure whoever the lucky guy is will be pleased to slide into a squeaky clean asshole like yours.'_

He even re enacted the silly blush that must've stained her own face at that time, though more restrained and stiff.

It was just lucky that their sensei's had decided to have a party of their own that night, otherwise, Sakura was sure that they would have out-drunk all of them and remembered every little thing that was said, because they could only recall bits and pieces.

She gave a tired giggle from the memories before the war, a fond smile lighting up her cheeks at the thoughts of her comrades.

It was a faded one still, because in the end, only a quarter of them pulled through.

A small fifth of that, still totally intact.

But a real, true smile brightened her features when she remembered that she would get to see Kakashi again, she would get to see her loved ones, even if she probably didn't deserve a second chance, maybe Kami has given her a great mercy. A miracle that she would be forever thankful for.

It was with these thoughts that her heart swelled with excitement and happiness, that she finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep, never seeing the black figure in the far corners of the darkness, glowing red eyes staining the air around it.


	4. Kidnapped and Nature

_**Hey Guys!**_

 _ **Back again with another chapter as promised. So, I uh, maybe, sorta lied about the longer chapter.**_

 _ **BUT DONT WORRY!**_

 _ **Not a filler this time! It's legit important haha.**_

 _ **But its also two in the morning so i'm kinda doped right now. Sorry if there's any mistakes in the chapter, but other than that, enjoy!**_

 _ **Unknown P.O.V**_

The figure in the shadows stood in silence, unmoving and impassive as he watched the young girl's entry and exit into the sleepers world, red eyes flickering and darkening in the orange light of the fire while he analysed his target.

He was specifically assigned to this mission by the clan leader, the urgency of the matter apparent, as he was not usually called unless the mission status was in restraint or for the treaty to other clans, thus his specialty. His team, some of the best trackers and tactical advisers, were not usually called unless the threat was deemed to be potentially life-threatening to the clan or if there was a high-level ninja lurking in their midst that the leader himself could not afford to see to.

He was wary at first, the strange circumstances were normally left for the senju, Tobirama and Hashirama, but even then, they were sent out only for stalling and tracking. He knew that they had already visited the possible alliances and overthrown, the last one being the Otori Clan who had made a diplomatic approach and offered fifty percent of all produce and funds as long as they were allowed to live without fear.

The Uchiha would have taken everything anyway, but their leader was not without mercy.

The five of them were given strict orders to only keep an eye on whatever it was that had made such a loud appearance, and only to initiate contact with the subject if it was in a weakened state and possibly take the person or thing captive, or if they were able to, convince it to leave or drive it away. If they were not able to make any contact with the subject of threat, they were to wait twenty-four hours until their Leader was able to get to them.

Not being able to make any contact at all would mean that the subject was of too high rank to engage, meaning that none of their current team wouldn't be able to come close to the thing that had given off such a high alert.

Such orders only meant that the stakes were high.

Failure to do any of the said orders stated recently would mean death.

After being sent out, five fully armoured nin buried to their necks with weaponry, what they had found was far more surprising than a high-level nin or even a biju. It was even more surprising that the chakra signature was not either of the Senju leaders, nor was it anyone especially known to them.

Because a tiny pink haired ten year old was anything but the threat they were expecting to face and possibly die from.

Exactly twelve hours and thirty six minutes had passed since his clan had been alerted of the massive chakra signature suddenly coming out of nowhere about five miles away from their main branch. It was like an explosion in the middle of the forest, but instead of destroying everything in its wake, it did the opposite.

The moment the waves had touched anything living, the organism had flourished with surprising speed, as was observed by his team and himself upon arrival.

It was certainly one of the most astonishing things they had seen by far, as the trees and flowers seemed to feed off of the excess energy the child was expending, some plants even wrapping loosely around her form, hugging her gently to the ground.

The pink hair was even stranger, as they had not ever seen another walk with such vibrant colours, no clan to their knowledge had a feature like hers. ' _But then again,'_ he thought to himself, reaching up to scratch at the stubble on his chin, ' _They say that some of the more colourful things in the world are in fact the most dangerous. No matter how small.'_

Her rags were also a noticeable difference, although they did seem somewhat high quality. It looked as if it were a uniform of some type, so that confirmed his suspicions on her possibly coming from a clan of sorts.

When they had first seen her, she had some sort of headband lying nearby, a symbol he had never seen before either engraved into its metal plate. But in their tree-top perches, it was too far away to properly see what exactly the shape on it was. A Clan symbol?

She was understandably disoriented when she awoke for a second time, the first time she fainted in a panic, putting them on edge when the nature around her began to react to her mood, but it didn't seem like she took any notice.

Takahiro, one of the trackers stationed close to him, had been whipped by a vine in the face, knocking him off the tree and into the ground, leaving a crater where he landed. Very soon after, the air began to feel volatile as were the plants, Subaru, annoyingly the only one with at least some medical knowledge, becoming the second to be almost knocked out as the branches started knocking them away violently.

None of them had come within one hundred metres of the girl after that until she woke up again.

Now only left with three able warriors of their original patrol, they had followed after her drunken stumble, too wary to come any closer than they were after the earlier doubts of her just being a little girl wiped clean off their minds.

Behind her back, the footsteps she left grew greener grass and flowers, the surrounding greenery looking like it wanted to lean towards her, suddenly calm, wind whispering through the leaves. Of course, this just made it easier to follow her, but it also made them extremely aware of how powerful she may be to make _nature_ act like this.

Not even Hashirama Senju could do this, and he had a kekkei genkai that was intimately close with nature.

Thus, it lead them to where they were now, lurking in the shadows of the cave she had decided to camp in. Her use of survival skill was yet another thing to add to the list of heart-attacks in the repertoire of surprises she continued to give.

A girl her age should not have known things like how to properly catch and skin animals, nor should they know how to distinguish the useful body parts for health and protein, and which parts could be worth more in the civilian market if her mumblings were anything to go by.

She didn't flinch at the sight of blood, nor did she bother to wipe it off as it splattered all over her face and onto her already soiled clothing. She didn't seem to care as it dripped into a puddle at her feet when she hung the skinned fur pelt to dry over the flames. She didn't care as she ate some of the meat raw absently, nibbling at a slice while some of the meat was cooking.

She didn't even really notice when she was subconsciously _sucking_ at the raw meat, something he'd only heard of those desert ninja doing when water was scarce and there wasn't much for iron intake.

He really shouldn't have been so surprised. They _were_ in a war, after all. But even then, there were plenty of water sources nearby, and there were vegetables across the country growing wild that were also just as high in iron as blood was. Even fish, which was abundant in most, if not all streams scattered.

There wasn't a reason for her to just be drinking blood as she was. It seemed to be habit.

Maybe she was really from the desert? If so, then what was she doing so far from it?

A quiet whisper knocked him from his musings after the girl had fallen asleep from next to him, quiet enough to be inaudible to anyone but himself.

"Taicho."

The husky voice came from behind him, winding into his ear like smoke.

' _Kei'_ His brain supplied helpfully.

Keeping his voice at the same level, not bothering to look behind him, he stayed his eyes on the girl's form, hand unwavering from the kunai pouch at his hip, he responded.

"Yes?"

"The odd phenomenon from before has passed." a slight pause. Then-

"I do not think she will be awakening anytime soon. This is most likely to be her most vulnerable state. It is most prudent that we strike now."

Kei was one of the two tactical advisers on his team, but was not actually the most suited for fighting. He was more along the lines of speed and using only a few of the clan techniques. His other adviser was Subaru, who was currently incapacitated unfortunately, but at least he had a better suited skill set.

Stepping out from the shadows, Kei's young form looked up at him, his black hair blending in with the background like camouflage. Kei's let down was that he only looked around fifteen, when he was in fact twenty five, making many people doubt his expertise at first.

That is, until Madara-sama took notice.

Grunting in agreement, he took out a senbon from his pouch, eyes still trained on the target.

"Kei-san. Yuu-san." From the deeper depths, another red glow began to rise. Yuu was their other tracking specialist, the best in all honesty.

Snapping his eyes to their locations for a split second, he gave them orders.

"Be ready for retaliation and rebound. In case of power turn, I want Kei-san to act as messenger. Yuu-san, if this fails, I will act as distraction. Find a way to incapacitate the target if death is not an available option."

Stance ready, he could hear the quiet shifting of his teammates, the soft _clink_ of metal objects echoing in the small space.

"If that also fails." He hesitated for a bit, hand tightening on the weapon in hand.

"Run as fast and as far as you can towards Kei-san's support group. Do not delay, and if possible, make sure to take the injured."

Subaru and Takahiro were still hidden in the cave's depths, Yuu having wrapped them as well as he could, but it didn't do much, considering they had both suffered internal bleeding and broken bones and fractures.

Three pairs of whirling sharingan glinted.

A soft _hiss_ of metal against metal.

"Yes, Seiwa-taicho."

 _ **xxx**_

There was no time.

There was one warning.

A small pulse.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight.

Her eyes snapped open.

A muted whisper of sliced wind.

But her nimble fingers had already caught the needle aimed for her neck.

Swift, but with daunting accuracy, she flung the weapon straight back, body functioning on autopilot even as her mind was completely blank.

It felts as though someone else was controlling her body for the time being while she properly woke up, a habit she had learnt to get used to during the war, fluctuating her already minimal reserves to augment her body and enhance.

The re-aimed projectile had missed its intended target, as she darted away from her previous space, watching, waiting for the yellow eyes of Zetsu to come out of the shadows, when the small movement to her left gave away the perpetrators position.

Sadly, she noted mutely, she had only managed to regain approximately forty-five percent of her original chakra capacity, so when she went in for one of her crushing punches, it made a smaller crater than what she was used to, making her frown without thought.

' _It's probably also my lack of muscle mass as well'_ she thought.

But, it seemed to somehow shock the Zetsu clone she could hear, as after he moved from his spot in the dark, a string of words left his mouth.

"How strange," She murmured as she stood back up from her crouching stance, tilting her head backwards as unseeing eyes glared into the inky black. "I thought you died along with your mother and the beast. Perhaps you are indeed more persistent than first thought."

Even stranger were the _redredred_ eyes that were so certainly not the gold she was expecting. There were three pairs stalking around in front of her, obviously trying for intimidation tactics.

Narrowing her own viridian orbs, she grunted as the world started to snap back into place.

"KEI-SAN! GO NOW!"

' _Kei-san?'_ She thought confused. Zetsu only had one split to his personality. He only called himself Zetsu.

She didn't know a Kei-san.

A back thrust of air suddenly whipped past, blowing air through her pink locks.

First response; Surprise.

Reaction; Defend any attacks to threaten the village.

He thought he was fast.

But she was faster.

Enhancing her calf muscles with the exact amount of chakra so as not to waste any, she caught up in no time,leaving a three second delay of dust in her wake, snapping one hand out to catch and defend against the kunai aimed for the back of her head from behind, while the other snagged the collar of his collar. She twisted 180 degrees, before flinging him hard back into the cave, back into where the kunai had came from.

There was a loud _smash_ as the so-called 'Kei' hit the back of the cave wall, sinking into the darkness as she caught a glimpse of the murky liquid leaking on the floor.

This only made her even more confused.

' _Zetsu doesn't bleed. So why is this one bleeding?'_ She knew it wasn't anyone from the allied forces, it couldn't be, because they had all fought together.

' _So then what the hell is this?'_

An enraged scream was her only warning as a blazing inferno of orange heat almost caught her in its wake. Had she moved a split second earlier, the tips of her hair would not be the only thing scorched.

A barrage of weaponry followed close behind the ninjutsu, catching her unaware as gashes lacerated along her skin.

She didn't have much chakra left, but she had loads of stamina, but she didn't know if she could out last three of Madara's stupid cloned _things._

Of course, it hurt more than it used to because she didn't have the same pain tolerance as she used to in her older body, so when the projectiles hit home, she choked down the urge to scream in pain.

But she had no time to slow, as it seemed like the attack was never ending.

The two enemies she had left had split, one throwing sharp things her way, while the other, seemingly older one, rushed up to engage her in taijutsu.

Panting in exertion, she looked up to see what exactly was wrong with these Zetsu, but what she did see, almost stopped her in her tracks, causing her to hesitate long enough for him to rabbit punch her in the stomach and kick her back, out of the cave and into the moonlit forest.

' _But...Sasuke? Why is he attacking me?! '_ She thought franticly, eyes wide as things came rushing back, the man who looked like her brother slamming into the place she was not a millisecond ago as she darted to the trees, her mind working in dizzying patterns to compliment her intense confusion as she grit her teeth.

But...he looked like him, but he wasn't?

He had what seemed to be the sharingan, but the Uchiha were _dead._

' _What the fuck is happening?!'_ she screamed internally.

Something inside her snapped.

But, then the weirdest thing happened.

And she noticed an even stranger thing happening.

 _The fucking trees were defending her._

They looked to be responding to her stress, whipping and stabbing at the first ninja as soon as he tried to approach her, trying to curl around him ankles and neck to suffocate him.

It became even worse when she started to hyperventilate.

Everthing was so so _wrong wrong wrong._

 _But she didn't know what was wrong._

 _Wrongbadnotrightwrongwrongwrongwrong-_

The plants shriveled and grew thorns as the trees suddenly looked more ominous, twisting as an awful screeching and crack of bark sliced the air as she fell to her knees, black spots darting at the edges of her vision.

 _Nonono - Deadnotlivingrestrestrest -_

 _leaveleaveleavedon'twantthinsnonono-_

 _ **Unatural.**_

Blurry vision was all she had, watching as the trees had wound around the young man who looked like her nii-san, red eyes and all, the branches so _so so close to his neck_ and she was _so close, so close to ripping_ _ **his head from his body sososoCLOSE-**_

A strange prickling at the base of her neck was the only warning she had as the welcome hand of unconsciousness claimed her, immersing her in a blanket of nothing.

So she knew nothing.


	5. My Capture and The Impending Future

**_Yes! I'm actually back this time._** **_Damn, its been awhile, so sorry, but as a New Year present, I decided to actually write another chapter and get off my lazy ass._** **_I know. I'm a disappointment._** **_Any who_** ** _, I hope you enjoy! Happy year of the Monkey!_**

 ** _XXXXXXXX_**

Drifting in and out of consciousness was an unusual feeling.

If Sakura had a way to describe it, it would be like having her vision chop and change, in and out of focus, as the voices whipped through her ear lobes.

Selective and strangely distant.

"... _300 kilometres west….uch..report..-"_

" _..Tranquilizer...wearin…-"_

" _...gates..com…...chakra depletion..-"_

There really wasn't much to be gathered from the few conversations that she could hear from her apparent kidnappers, other than the constant unconsciousness was indeed caused chemically.

It was really a strange experience, she could hear everything around her from time to time, but it was like her body was choosing not to respond, to feel. She knew that they were picking her up, touching her, lifting her, but only because her nerves were still sending the messages to her brain that told her so. She couldn't physically feel _any of it._

But at the moment, she was so out of it that she couldn't even seem to care at all.

Infact, even when they had apparently stopped for the night to treat the wounded men, she couldn't even care that she could move her fingers, and that the drug was wearing off, as she floated in the calm recesses of her mind.

It was inky, a black blanket of warmth that didn't actually allow her to properly think, as if it had the actual consciousness to tempt her into joining its slumber every time she tried to get out of it.

Like quicksand, she was steadily sinking.

Absently, she thought briefly, that perhaps they had drugged her up so badly that she had fallen into a temporary coma, because the elephant sitting on her chest forcing her down seemed to think so.

' _But then,'_ she supposed, ' _This is probably far better than facing whatever is out there. I don't like feeling very much.'_

' _Maybe, I'll stay here a little longer…'_ The thought drifted off as she sank even deeper into her mind, slipping off the cliff of focus she had stood precariously on, never feeling the small prick in her shoulder as her twitching fingers became still once more.

 _ **XXX**_

After successfully disabling their target and healing Takahiro and Subaru, Yuu and Seiwa, the latter having been choked to the point of unconsciousness, had carried their battered bodies along with the little girl to a halfway point from the compound, settling into a small clearing.

It wasn't much, less than what the pink girl had conjured up for herself in the temporary quarters she had constructed, and far less covered, but as the soft rays of morning sun peeked through the treetops, cold dew staining the grass as a bare fire wavered, it didn't seem like they were bad off either. Especially when all of them knew the hardships that could've been faced had they not been in a place that was abundant in life source.

But if it was actually their captive's influence or not, they didn't care to know, happy to at least be warm.

Subaru, the designated healer of their small group, was seen constantly wrapping gauze and ointment on his teammates, passing out painkillers to Yuu and Takahiro and running out to the stream nearby to collect water. His face was a picture of concentration, focused despite the feeling of sadness welling at the pit of his stomach.

At the moment, Seiwa lay out before him, angry red marks and startling black bruises wrapped around his captain's throat, almost in the eerie imitation of a lovers embrace, only so much more life threatening. Subaru had treated his wounds first, applying a salve onto the redness before gently covering it with a bandage. He didn't think that it would do much, but it would have to do for now until they could get some actual medical help, or until he woke up. But Subaru didn't really want to think about how much pain the man might be in if their captain did awaken.

Yuu had chosen to guard their charge, keeping a constant eye on her, the syringe holding the sedative half full from the last application around three hours ago, while Takahiro was keeping an eye out on their surroundings, darting in and out from the trees above constantly.

He was sure that, despite the calm faces in front of him, that the same guilty emotion that was holding onto him was affecting them like a vice as well, wafting through the air like polluted smoke.

Finding out the death of a clan member after waking up was not pleasant, especially not when they had had to burn his remains, as none of them had the strength or the room to lug around dead weight on their way back. Burial was not an option either, not unless they wished for someone to happen upon the eyes of their clan.

Sure, Kei's death was gruesome. But the _smell_ and the _ashes_ of what they did after followed them as they made their journey back, nipping and biting at their heels like a rabid hound.

Subaru wasn't as close as the other members were to Kei, but they were still family.

They were still blood.

Subaru couldn't watch at the time, only able to grit his teeth and look away, but now, sitting here, made it all the more real. But he wasn't surprised.

Death was a common thing in these hard times.

The only rule universally accepted by all was something they had all learnt to live with at a young age, which was; ' _To have power is to survive. But, eventually, there will be one stronger than yourself. To them you shall bow, and to them you shall die. Survival of the fittest.'_

Kei did not have enough power, not enough to defend himself, and so he found his master in the form of a small girl. But it was in no way a cruel death, but a swift one.

His master was kind. Subaru could only wish for one such as his.

But in this world, the twenty years he had managed to live through only suffocated that dull hope, drowning it under murky waters.

He gave a solemn sigh as he finished his work, falling backwards onto the soft green beneath him and using his hands to cushion his head, curly black locks weaving through pale fingers. Turning his head to the side, he looked across to the oddity under Yuu's harsh scrutiny, eyes drifting over her innocent, childish features, a seemingly frail body amassed with piles of rags, no matter how high quality.

For some strange reason, he couldn't find it in himself to be angry at the child who had delivered death to his cousin. He thought that he should be, but he wasn't. After all, it was technically their own fault for bringing the fight to her, and she was only defending herself. Guiltily, he thought that the only reason he wasn't on the waiting list to kill her, was because he had kids of his own.

He knew that even if they tried to kill him, and succeeded, he could never be mad at them.

And yeah, sure, there were plenty of other kids in the compound, but his kids were _his._ The others, while he would treat them with the same kindness as he would his own, he would still get angry at them sometimes. Still get annoyed. But he could afford to. Because he knew that they had parents to go home to.

Parents they could hug and love, and receive love from.  
Parents they could be guarded by.

But this little girl, Subaru thought, looked as if she had no one.  
She looked helpless, frail, delicate, even if he knew that she was anything but.

It pulled at his many heart strings, and somehow, just staring at her made him feel worse about her current predicament.

Afterall, even if her strange power over nature had been the thing to knock him breathless and render him unconscious, it didn't seem as if she had any control over it. Like she didn't mean it.

She was like the personification of chakra, untamed and wild in its pure form, simply doing as instinct dictated, so uncontrolled and unruly, something he could relate to with the eyes he now has.

He too, was like her once.

War turned him into a killer, a tool.

A fine tuned sword ready at any moment.

When they arrived at the compound, she would suffer as any other prisoner of war did, but her fate would be so much worse if they decided her fiery spirit could be tamed, and she would be treated like a bijuu.

Just a beast. Mindless, only able to be pointed in the direction of their ire, used just like the two tailed cat was sometimes used by his clan. Poked, prodded, given bait and sending it off in the wrong direction of where its hatred should be placed, manipulated.

Untamed, but bitter and angered. Broken.

He didn't want that for such a free spirit. Not for any kid.

But he was bound by the rule of the clan, and as he slowly drifted off under the gentle warmth of the suns' early rays, he wondered if it was indeed only his loyalty staying his wandering soul hooked to his body.

 _ **XXX**_

…

.

'… _. It's so dark…'_

' _...I want to wake up so bad…'_

 _._

 _._

' _Why can't I wake up?'_

The comfort the dark used to provide was slowly ebbing away, and it felt like she was starting to suffocate in it.

It felt like, every time she tried to wake up, and her body tried to recuperate, she was only dragged back down into the depths of nothingness. It was only frustrating her more and more, and even if her thought process was blanking out every now and then, the small windows of consciousness she had began to frequent more often, and she remembered more every time.

In her mind, there were no dreams, and vaguely, she guessed that it was probably due to the drugs they had been pumping into her tiny body, but it was getting annoying just swimming around in consistent murky black.

' _Won't somebody let me out?'_

 _._

 _._

She supposed that it was a smart move- as she was now aware every time they pricked her with that damn needle in the arm- to tranquilize her, because she knew that if she had a chance, she would have tried to knock out anyone who even _looked_ at her funny. She would, most likely, fail in the face of that mindset, but the flaring temper in her simmered and boiled in the pits of her stomach encouraged her and egged her on.

It was hard to just say no to something so tempting.

Sometimes, when she became _aware,_ for lack of better term, she would hear snippets of conversation happening outside of her body, the voices of two of the Uchiha who had captured her and two others filtering through her ears as she tried to listen in. But because of the vertigo and grogginess felt when she woke up, she almost never got a whole sentence before the needle was stabbed back into her again, and so she hardly got any useful information of their whereabouts.

Despite this, she did, in fact, get the names of her confusingly not-Zetsu-sharingan-using male captors if nothing else.

The needle-man (as she decided to call him) or Yuu, seemed to be the least talkative out of the bunch, while the argumentative tones of Subaru and Takahiro buzzed frequently over the apparent prone body of Seiwa every time she woke up. It's as if they had only argued the whole time to wherever they were headed.

But she would never hear about the 'Kei' their captain had vainly called out to in the middle of their fight.

It didn't matter though. Because she already had her suspicions.

' _Anyone…'_

… _._

' _Someone…'_

They should have been _dead._

There is no possible way for even a small _group_ of Uchiha to be wandering around without Konoha knowing about it. Their spy network infested to almost every inch of the country and beyond, they had eyes in every crevice, every corner. It had been confirmed after the massacre of each and every body had been accounted for. _It was not possible._

But just outside the blanket, just out of her reach, the impossible were arguing and conversing together, eating and drinking, _bleeding and healing,_ because they were as much alive as she herself was.

She never thought she would live to see the clan with any more members than the last avenger and the murderer.

There were so many _questions,_ so much she wanted to know, the confusion of it all threatening to pull her deeper into the abyss. But she _needed_ answers so badly.

If only…

' _..If only I could get out of this black hell…'_

 _ **XXX**_

"Takahiro-san."

"Hm? What is it?"

Emptying the last of the syringe into the frail arm in his hands, he tightened his pack hanging off his shoulder and swiped a clean cloth from his pocket, tossing it over his shoulder without looking.

"We have until around the next Sunrise, before the last of the sedative wears off and we arrive at the compound. I need you to grab extra herbs for more though." Yuu said, lifting up the tied form of the girl onto his free shoulder. She draped from it limply, a curtain of short pink hair sifting along his dark armor.

The older man had stuffed his face full with scrounged nuts they had found around the small camping area , looking down at the thrown fabric in question.

Their small group had decided to travel at the break of dawn, giving them sufficient time to make it back despite the amount of dead weight the three conscious men had to lug back.

Seiwa-taicho was still unconscious, and Subaru had stated that he was probably in a coma, which made for good motivation among his cousins, but more than anything, it was also a cause for panic.

They could not handle anymore stress or grief after the death of one comrade already, and no one knew how to properly take care of someone in a coma, and on top of that, Yuu worried that if the bundle of unstable chakra (who was pulsing alarming amounts of it out of her tiny form every now and then) were to wake up, they wouldn't make it back fully alive. Or alive at all for that matter.

Takahiro shrugged, his usual laid-back attitude softening his sharp features. "Well, yeah, alright. But aren't you at least a little concerned about the dosage? If you shove so much into those little veins of hers, she will not wake back up. The main house wanted her captured, not dead."

Yuu only looked over his shoulder from where he stood, the cold stare of steel grey eyes narrowing as they glared at the face of the persuedo murderer.

"She is beginning to immunise herself to the sedative, even the larger, more increased dosages I have been administering lately, which is something I have never seen before. She should not have the strength to even breathe with the amount I gave her, but lately the effects seem to wear off within the span of two hours. I've even caught her body forcing the chemicals out of her pores. It's astounding."

And it really was. Yuu had never heard of someone's body forcibly removing liquid from the pores. He had never even heard of anyone but the Seishin Clan in Swamp Country being able to grow such a fast immunity to something, as was their kekkai genkai.

Unfortunately for the pinky with her face buried into his long brown hair, it would only pique the interest of Tajima-sama more than already had been.

For to show a shiny object to a magpie is to offer it your back.


End file.
